794.II, 28 Floii, The Cloud Mountains

Is there any higher than the highest?

Here I sit, atop a mountain, gazing at the sun who slowly sets behind the mountains. For the first time since the start of my climbing, he has been my companion for the whole day, barely bothered by a few clouds between him and I. And his slowly fading lights bring me the most beautiful sight ever. Because he doesn't leave the horizon before shining the one true marvel I will never be able to reach to, the Cloud Mountains. 

Before me, as far as can be, they almost feel like they stand behind the sun. The clouds which are mountains, the mountains which don't reach ground. These mountains seem to change with every gust of wind, every shift of light caressing their peaks, yet they stand immovable and eternal, ever-dynamic but never changing.

Across this endless distance separating the mountains from me, I can still spot a ridge here, a glacier there. The mountains deploy their unknown splendor just for me to see, for I may be the only one above the clouds that cover the world beneath my feet. ANd as the light fades out, the Cloud Mountains' figure still show, a dark bulk shading the stars that slowly appear in the night sky. The wind picks up, chilly through my five layers of clothing -I look like a tiny mountain of fur and down in these frosty heights. It picks up fresh snow, turning the night into a glimmering wave of moonlit stardust. And I lose sight of the Cloud Mountains as I lose strength and soon close my eyes. I slowly fade to sleep, huddled against Bob's rough and comforting mass. I listen to his intense breathing.

 

Can there ever be a way to know, whether there exists a way up there, to reach the unreachable, to touch the immuable spectacle that takes place before me?

Here I am, atop the highest mountain range in the world, I've reached the most inhospitable and unreachable lands Boomal has to offer, and yet I still dream of yet a more distant goal, a farther destination. What am I looking for? What thirst has brought me here, that can't get quenched by this? I tire from these unanswerable questions.

Leen.